Why does osteosarcoma cluster in the knees of growing teenagers? A University of Tokyo team, working from an accidental clue in aging research, has pieced together how the cancer starts: an accelerator gene (c-Myc), a brake gene (p53), and a signal from the bone's growth plate. It could reshape drug discovery for a rare cancer.
Researchers at Showa and Kansai Medical Universities grew mesothelial-like cells from human iPS cells to repair the peritoneum, the membrane that wears out and ends peritoneal dialysis. A look at the mouse proof-of-concept and why Japan's PD rate is so unusually low.
Japan's iPS cell therapy already treated fresh spinal injuries. Now a Keio University team is preparing a trial for the far harder chronic phase, where more than 100,000 patients have long been told regeneration simply isn't possible.
An Osaka University startup, Endoluminal Solutions, has built a 4mm single-use endoscope aimed at replacing barium gastric-cancer screening. A look at the miniaturization behind it and where it fits in an endoscope industry Japan's Olympus dominates.
Nagasaki University and Shionogi have found FPSA, a compound that targets plasmepsin X, the enzyme malaria parasites use to burst out of red blood cells. As artemisinin resistance spreads across Africa, a fresh mechanism of action matters. A look at Japan's global-health drug discovery and where this actually stands.
Japanese startup PorMedTec will run the country's first pig-to-human kidney transplant trial at Hokkaido University Hospital and Shonan Kamakura General Hospital in early 2028. Against a backdrop of 340,000 dialysis patients and 15-year transplant waits, we look at the plan, the gene-edited eGenesis pigs, and how it compares with US clinical cases.
Photo blur is usually a mistake to avoid. But a University of Osaka team uses the shape of that blur to read how far away objects are, recovering depth from a single camera with help from a physics-guided AI. Errors stay within about a centimeter at four meters, with uses in robotics and inspection.
Two nearly identical proteins, one sees red and one sees green, separated by just 30 nanometers. A Japan-led international team determined the dark-state atomic structures of the red and green cone pigments for the first time, revealing that three amino acids decide how we tell red from green. The story behind a long-standing mystery in color vision.
Damaged neurons were thought to be beyond repair. A University of Tokyo team led by Noboru Mizushima just challenged that in mice: switch the cell's cleanup system, autophagy, back on, and the protein junk clears, motor skills and memory return. A new angle on neurodegeneration from a disciple of Nobel laureate Yoshinori Ohsumi.
A Kyushu University team showed for the first time that RPS19, long known as an anemia gene, also suppresses cancer by keeping p53 working. The finding hints at repurposing existing MDM2-inhibitor drugs.
A Science Tokyo team finds that the brain runs multiple clocks for elapsed time, shifting between coherence and independence. From M2 and PPC recordings to the Twin-RNN model and a clue for brain-inspired AI, here's what they saw in a mouse.